Network capacity (`bandwidth') is increasing at a rapid pace with the deployment of fibre-to-the-home and mobile broadband. Latency is then becoming the main performance limitation for Internet services.

Latency is the time it takes to complete an operation:

• Time between clicking a web link and the display of the page
• Time between user input and resulting action in a game
• Time to transfer a data packet through the Internet

Read more:

• Importance of latency